Iran Executes 21 Year Old Accused Of Gay Sex When He Was 13

(New York City) The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said Wednesday that a 21 year old man spared from execution only 10 days ago was hanged this morning.

On November 15 Iran's Chief Justice halted the execution of Makvan Mouloodzadeh and ordered a new trial.

Mouloodzadeh had been charged with having sex with another male when the accused was only 13 years old.

The official charge was rape - Iran usually uses the term rape when arresting a suspect on charges of homosexual sex.

At his original trial no witness ever accused Mouloodzadeh of rape. Instead, the prosecution witnesses all told the court that their statements during the investigation were either untruthful or coerced.

Nevertheless Mouloodzadeh was found guilty and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in August

Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi in staying the execution described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land. (story)

Shahrudi's ruling sent the case to the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department, a designated group of judges who are responsible for reviewing and ordering retrials of flawed cases flagged by the Iranian Chief Justice.

However, the judges decided to ratify the original court's ruling and ordered the local authorities to carry out the execution.

Neither Mr. Mouloodzadeh's family or his lawyer were told about the execution until after it occurred, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a statement.

"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights law," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director.

"How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?"

Under Islamic law sodomy is a capital crime punishable by public lashings or hanging.

Some international gay rights groups believe that more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. The government in Tehran has repeatedly denied the reports.

Last month it was learned that during a meeting between British and Iranian politicians a high ranking Iranian cabinet minister acknowledged for the first time that the Islamic state upholds the death penalty for homosexuality. (story)

The disclosure was in marked contrast to remarks in September by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a speech at Columbia University when he declared there were no homosexuals in Iran. (story)

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it," Ahmadinejad said.

Scouting For All is not an alternative scouting program.
We are an education and advocacy organization reaching out to gay and nontheist youth and adults in our effort to get the Boy Scouts of America to rescind its exlusionary policy.

Any communications sent to Scouting for All or any Scouting for All representative may be published on the Scouting for All web site or in Scouting for All materials unless the communication specifically requests that it not be published.